Tantalizing Tuesday with Laurie Sorensen

Every week I will be posting interviews with awesome authors called my Tantalizing Tuesdays. This week we have Laurie Sorensen. Enjoy!

1. Do you use a pen name? If so, why?

Yes I use a pen name. My real name is Laura McCOmas, and I write under Laurie Sorensen. The reason I use a pen name is to honor my grandfather on my mother’s side. I was born out of wedlock and until age five my last name was Sorensen. My grandfather called me Laurie all the time, so that is how my pen name was born. It is me, before I got to be who I am today.

2. What is your favorite novel that you’ve written? Read?

The favorite novel I have written so far is one that will be coming out in May from Evernight Publishing. “The Pirate Princess” was designed to be a short story that was to go into an anthology about Pirate women before my last publisher closed its doors. Now, I get to expand the story slightly to make it longer and have it a release on its own. I am looking forward to the editing process and the adding of two or three scenes. The favorite book I have read would be anything written by Catherine Coulter. Her imagination is awesome and I count her as one of the main reasons I am published.

3. Does the environment affect your writing (where you live, the seasons, the weather, etc.)?

The environment doesn’t really affect my writing as much as my own mood does. The weather is a minor part of my writing. If it’s cold or rainy outside, I tend to write more, but sometimes I can just curl up on the couch with a good book or movie running in the DVD player instead of writing.

4. Where is your favorite/most bizarre place to have your characters boink?

This question I find funny, because the wedding night in my first book, Ravenwood: Night’s Salvation, takes place in a clearing in the woods on the grounds of the boyhood home of the groom. At this point, that scene is likely the oddest one to this point.

5. Do you base your heroines/heroes on photos of celebrities? If so, who? Include links if you like.

I don’t base my characters on celebrites at all, I base them on people I have known throughout my lifetime. I do, however, try to put celebrities in mind once the characters are written in case someone picks up the book to make a movie out of it…lol…but when I write, my characters just become who they are, because of the people in my life, both past and present.

6. Bonus question! What’s the last thing you ate today?

The last thing I ate today so far has been a handful of Muddy Buddies.

7. Bonus question! Anything you’d like to say.

Writing is like breathing for me. I have self-published one book but only because it had already been published by two other publishers, one of which didn’t renew the contract and the other closed. It is a book one of a series, so I had to re-release it to keep it out there so the others could come out after it. The title of the book is Ravenwood: Night’s Salvation and it can be bought in three different places right now.

Duty, love and passion take flight on the wings of destiny. Compelled by honor and duty, Night Ravenwood leaves the only life he knows to return home after his brother’s death. He’s the new heir to Ravenwood Manor and the Earldom; at home an arranged marriage awaits him with a woman he’s never met. When tragedy strikes the newlywed couple, Night realizes he’s fallen in love with the beautiful Satine, but does she love him in return? Satine vows to make Night see his destiny includes her; meanwhile someone is willing to commit murder to keep them apart. Will love or murder shape the destiny of this love?

Free book giveaway!

Laurie is giving away a free ebook to a random commenter today. I will post the winner in the comments.